Afternoon Tea: Laduree

This post is one of many documenting my week in Paris, a present to myself for graduating pastry school in the fall of 2012. Every moment was spent eating and one post wasn’t enough. It’s now a short novel. Kidding. I hope.

I always say Laduree is the Tiffany’s of sweets. Walking out of the shop with a pastel green bag is chic and tres Parisian. The interior is truly opulent with crystal chandeliers and wall paintings inspired by the Sistine Chapel and nearby Opera Garnier. Everything is gilded in gold from the porcelain china for tea to the macaron boxes that I admit to saving because they are so beautiful. I typically brave the long line, buy my macarons and leave but on my latest trip I decided this was a fitting place to celebrate graduating from pastry school since my final project was a pastry assortment inspired by the ones at Laduree.

Three of the locations in Paris have tea salons, Champs-Elysees, rue Bonaparte and rue Royale.  The latter is the oldest and I wanted to be at the original establishment so allons-y! Off to rue Royale for tea!

It was a drizzly day so everyone else also thought it’d be a good idea to have tea. I went at 2:30pm and stood in line for 20 minutes. I admired the macaron window that changes every month with a new theme and decorated with macaron towers and gift boxes.

The tea salon has a small room downstairs and a larger dining area upstairs which is where I was seated. The lights from the sconces created a warm, inviting glow in the room.

Tea for two: Religeuse rose with tea and tarte citron with cappuccino

The tarte citron was crafted beautifully, a perfect round sablee crust and the lemon flavor was tart, not quite as much as the one at Jacques Genin’s but in general, it seems Parisians prefer this dessert to be more sour than sweet.

Ah the religeuse, the one item in my pastry school final presentation that I more than anything wanted to perfect. I love the dramatic piping details of buttercream that remind me of a high collar on an elegant French gown and the one gold dragee on top. The thing that got me was the smoothness of the pate a choux which I just found out is achieved by using a silicone hemisphere mold and not be hand-piping.

The religeuse above has a pastry cream filling with fresh raspberries. The sweetness from the middle is nice contrast to the icing fondant on the outside that is incredibly sweet. It has a rose flavoring which I really like.

We sat near the bar with all the dessert selections. Along with the religeuse rose there is also salted caramel, chocolate and pistachio. I would absolutely do this again and try different pastries next time. The savory food also looks really good as well.

Note: If you want to purchase the  macarons and pastries to go, they have moved them to a room next door which is great for crowd control but it doesn’t quite have the same magic as in the main shop, so do stop by to at least see the tea room.

Laduree
16, rue royale
75008 Paris